Miguel Adrover Is Alive and Kicking
Contrary to one of his Instagram all-capital-letters posts last week that read “The Designer Miguel Adrover Is Dead,” he is very much alive and well.
Reached Tuesday, the Mallorca-based artist noted how he had relayed a similar message years ago (in 2017) and had found a way to express himself with no clothing through photography, one of the artistic mediums he has focused on. An image of him lying naked in the grass followed the faux post-mortem message. He made the distinction that “the designer Miguel Adrover is dead.”
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As for whether Adrover was concerned about frightening some people, who may have taken the message literally, he said, “No, I did not do anything on purpose. Everything I post on Instagram is to be looked at as a whole. I say that on my page [a reference to the prompt, ‘This page is curated to be seen as a whole’]. Lying down naked on the grass is artistic expression.”
Adrover continued, “Anyway, death is not such a…it looks like we cannot talk about death. This brings a conversation to it. These days you have to be so careful about everything. It looks like we don’t have any freedom anymore.”
The fashion world’s wunderkind in the late ’90s, he ditched the fame and frenzy that designer life requires after losing financial backing in 2004. As a last-ditch effort to salvage his company, Adrover sported a T-shirt imprinted with “Anyone see a backer?” He relocated to Mallorca, where he ran a bar before for a stretch. Art has been his primary focus in recent years and he can often be found holed up underground in an 11-1/2-foot 300-year-old well.
The symbolism of his post was having the freedom to go on to something else. That said, Adrover still incorporates some of his fashion designs into his photography. “Everything is questioned these days,” he said. “I was in a Goth band. In many cultures, death is seen in a very different way, not like in the Occidental world, where death is something that we can’t talk about. A lot of designers died, you know?”
Lest anyone fret about his well-being, Adrover posted again over the Fourth of July weekend, including two images of him wearing a red, white and blue star-spangled suit and blasting the U.S. Supreme Court. One post read, “Raped by the Supreme Court of the United States…and forced to give birth, self-portrait of today’s reality.”
Adrover is among the selected artists whose work will be shown starting Thursday at the Misa.Art. The fair will run through July 24 in Mallorca. His art is represented by the Koenig Galerie. Adrover is also well into developing a 300-page book that will feature images of his work. In addition, a New York-based production team is working on a documentary about his life and career in fashion and art. The aim is to show the documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Photo Courtesy Miguel Adrover
Aside from having three of his most prized clients in New York, Adrover is eager to return to Manhattan for other work related to representation of his art, the book and film project. Excited that United Airlines now offers direct service between New York and Mallorca — the first airline to accommodate the Balearic island — he said, “The other day I was in the supermarket in the village and I heard people talking about being from New York. We started a conversation about New York City. It will make it very convenient for me to go there. There are so many hassles in the airport these days. You have to wait and wait in lines.”
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